Recreating Dell Utility Partition

Hi,

I recently formatted the previous DellUtility partition because it was not working in any way... so I decided to recreate it. I followed the guide for goodell's site but I am stuck in step 5. I cant make the partition bootable! I have used Win98 boot disk and copied the system files, but when the DellUtility loads I get a Windows 98 boot screen and thats it?? any help would be greatly appreciated

 

anyone???
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skip down and do step 8 and 9
configure the config.sys and autoexec.bat
this should solve your problem
jim

 

ok I did everything written in the guide except step 5, and the result:
----------------
PBR 1...done

Remove disks or other media
Press any key to restart
----------------
and when I press enter I get
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[XLDR] !ATA
----------------

Its still not working!! plz any help I have been working all day long to fix this!!

 

actually i created mine on a new drive with media direct 3 dvd then re imaged my os back with acronis
check this link this program supposedly repairs utility partition also
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...1&vercnt=2&formatcnt=1&libid=13&fileid=173571
jim

 

how did it work with u?! what program u used to format and how did u manage to make the partition bootable with the utility system files?

 

i ordered the media direct 3.0 dvd from dell you boot to it and it partitions your drive installing the utility partition. you then have a clean partition to reinstall windows or copy an image to.
by the way the diagnostics are also on the drivers disk that came with your notebook just boot to the cd run them from there just a thought
jim

 

I have dell media direct 2.0 cd if I install if from the beginning will it also install the dell utility partition?

 

no it takes 3.0 its totally different it incorporates office functionality
jim

 

so there is no way to create the dell utility manually? goodells guide isnt working...

 

have you tried the dell link http://ftp.us.dell.com/diags/DDUP1277.exe theres a chance it may fix it

 

yeah I tried that but no use

 

call dell tech support im sure there is a way to fix it just yank their chain

 

AFAIK, there is no way you can reinstall the partition on your laptop. You can download the dell utility from support.dell.com and burn it to a disc. Then boot for the disc and run the diagnostics from there. There are instructions on the file's download page if you want to do that.

Alternatively, you can use the Dell Driver's disc that came with the XP disc.Same as before. You can boot from this disc and run the utilities.

 

thanx for giving me a straight answer, but now if I delete the partitin will MediaDirect still work?

 

sorry for the triple post ....

 

yes run the m/d repair utility or reinstall m/d
jim

 

Depends on what Media Direct version you have. If you have MD 2.0, then leave at least 1.5gb of unpartition space at the end of your HDD. Reinstall MD since you have the disc and it should be good to go. You might need to repair MD. I can't remember if you do or not.

If you want MD 3.0, call Dell's tech support and request the MD 3.0 reinstallation disc. Then you'll have to use it to completely reformat, but you won't need to repair MD at all.

 

My HDD _________ Just died!!!!! ah

 

Finally, I recieved a fresh 100GB HDD today, and installed the following:

Windows Media Center... SUCCESS
Dell MediaDirect... SUCCESS

My partition are as the following:

(C) 30.1GB PRIMARY [WINDOWS]
(D) 61.1 PRIMARY [DATA]
( ) 1.4GB PRIMARY [MEDIADIRECT] (With Codecs)

eveything is working great, no need to worry about dellutility, or dell restore... no HPA partition... and no more dsrfix!! I will create my image with acronis to restore when something happens...

thanx for the help everyone...